The village chief's daughter-in-law saw a large pile of roots and stems to the side, remained silent for a while, and then took the roots and stems to hand over to the team and turned to leave.
To be honest, she was really envious.
The area around the Chen family's house was already crowded with people, all staring at the "food" and drooling.
The eldest daughter-in-law scolded, "What's so interesting to watch? You won't get any anyway, so get out of here! Don't do anything, my family still has things to do!"
After watching for a while, the crowd dispersed and went about their own business.
On the Chen family's side, the men helped build the thatched shed, the women went to cut thatch, and the elderly and children went to find food.
Daya is cutting sugarcane roots because the roots are so long!
With nothing to lay on, they had to move a relatively flat stone, wipe it clean with thatch, and use it. Luckily, Daji had a kitchen knife, so they weren't left without anything to cut things.
Da Ya cut each of these grass roots into 10-centimeter lengths.
The younger children helped by taking some tough, dry grass and tying the grass roots into bundles.
They even picked up the small, short pieces of fallen grass roots and put them in the takeout box; these were still edible and shouldn't be wasted.
On the other side of the procession, the five sugarcanes handed over by the Chen family were cut into sections, and each section was further cut into five segments.
They also cut the grass roots into sections and tied them together with straw ropes.
The Chen family was busy at work because they had handed over a lot of things, so they had priority access to their tools.
With the tools, the thatched hut was built quickly. The frame was all set up, and all that was left was to cover it with thatch. The tools were returned after use, as there were still people waiting to use them.
The village chief's family also came over. They set aside a plot of land next to the Chen family's house to build a thatched shed. They didn't get any special treatment; everyone had to rest in the thatched shed outside.
The village chief's house in Dashan Village was set up next to the village chief's house.
When Bai Chuan came to visit the Chen family, Chen Nong cut half of his unfinished sugarcane and shared it with him.
Shirakawa snorted, "You have so many, but you won't even share one with me."
The "single" he was referring to was cut into sections. Shirakawa was still very happy to have received the sugarcane.
Chen Nong said, "My grandmother manages these things, so she has to distribute them. Come on, help me tie the sugarcane roots into bundles."
Shirakawa: "I'll help. Can I have a bundle of sugarcane roots?"
Chen Nong looked up at Daya.
Daya coughed and said, "Okay, but only one bundle, no more."
These words were spoken to Chen Nong. Don't think that just because there are many grassroots people, you can be generous to others. There are so many of them, there isn't much left when divided among them.
As Shirakawa helped, he said, "The team cut the sugarcane into 200 sections, and each section was then cut into 5 pieces. There are a lot of them."
He wanted to eat sugarcane, so he kept watching them cut it and even started counting. He couldn't count anymore after he got to over five hundred, but there was just a lot of it.
Chen Kai said, "That's a thousand dan, enough for each team to have two dan."
Shirakawa exclaimed happily, "That's wonderful!"
The patrol team that went out to search for people returned, not only finding several people but also bringing back good news: they found a water source in a cave. Water droplets were falling from the stone wall in just one spot, and the droplets weren't falling very fast, but it was still water!
The people in the group were overjoyed and immediately sent someone to fill the earthenware jars with water, while also sending two people to guard them.
Ten people were also found in Lijia Village, but they were all injured.
Dazhuang's mother, along with the family members who were still able to walk, each carrying a large bundle of thatch, walked to the Chen family's house.
Da Zhuang's mother shouted, "Brother Chen, we'll buy the thatch for your shed, all you need is a sugarcane."
Old Chen looked at the thatch they had cut and then agreed, "Okay, Daya, give them a sugarcane."
They mean a small section when they say "one".
Daya picked out a shorter one from the side and handed it to them.
Da Zhuang's mother was very excited as she took the Napier grass stalks: "We can eat sugarcane now!"
Da Zhuang's daughter's lips were cracked from thirst, and her voice was hoarse as she said, "Da Ya, could you give me a handful of these tiny sugarcane roots?"
The takeout box was almost full of fine roots, so Da Ya generously asked Xiao Bao to grab a handful for her. Then she said to them, "Why aren't you all going to cut some thatch? This isn't enough!"
Da Zhuang and his group happily replied, "Alright, coming right away!"
Just then, another family came over carrying three wicker baskets. "Da Ya, we'd like to give you six wicker baskets and a sugarcane, how about we trade?"
Da Ya and the others needed baskets or something to pack the sugarcane and the sugarcane roots that were tied into bundles, so I gave them one. "Bring the rest over early, we need them."
The old woman happily exclaimed, "Alright!"
Before long, several other families returned with straw baskets. Seeing that the Chen family already had these things, they exclaimed in regret, "Oh dear! We're too late!"
An old woman stepped forward and said, "Da Ya, I'll weave a fence out of branches and thatch to surround your house, and I'll exchange it for a sugarcane, okay?"
If it could be enclosed on all sides, it wouldn't be so cold to sleep at night, so Daya agreed and gave her a sugarcane.
With many hands making light work, the Chen family quickly built their thatched hut, which was then lined with soft, dry grass.
The Chen family's thatched hut was enclosed by fences on both sides, with a large entrance area in front, but no door. To allow for better lighting, several openings were left in the enclosed area in front as windows.
Seeing that many of the infants in the line were about to give up, Zhou told Daya to bring up fifty sugarcanes so they could juice them and feed the juice to the infants, hoping to keep them alive for a while.
Old Man Chen sighed, "Too many people in our team have fallen. We might lose more than half of our members. The village chief said we'll stay here for four or five days to rest and recuperate."
At noon, the water keeper brought back half a pottery jar of water, and everyone was overjoyed. With water, they could brew their medicine, and no one would die of thirst.
The village chief divided the water in the half-pottery jar into half a bottle for the infants in the group, and used the rest to make medicine for the seriously injured.
After the Chen family finished eating, there was nothing to rest on, so they left the second son to watch the house while the others went out to find food.
While they still have time, they want to store up as much food as possible to eat on their journey.
Edible plant roots are their first choice. Once they find them, they will store them. These things are quite filling and will become their staple food in the future.
The second son had difficulty walking, so he had to stay at the resting place. He was cutting down some tree trunks to make a carrying pole.
He's lost all his tools of the trade, so he can't make complicated things anymore; he can only make simple tools.
The little boy, carrying a small basket, asked, "Where are we going to find food?"
Chen Nong said, "Let's go find the dead wood and look for the larvae of the horned beetle in the wood stump."
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